Meet Gem, my evil mare :)

Gem and I have an unusual relationship. She pretends she doesn't give a darn if I'm around or not and I pretend that I don't know that she is bluffing. In fact I truly love to annoy her and shower her with above average amounts of affection just to see her pissy face. Of course as soon as I turn around her ears are forward and she is looking like "why did you stop?!"

 

She is a 15 h 1999 model Arabian mare. Well, actually she has 1/8th quarter horse in her that I blame all bad behavior on :) I have her papers around somewhere with her full name on them, but papers don't matter to me one bit, so I don't really care. She is registered half Arabian and breeding stock pinto.

Why do I call her evil? Because really she is. It boils down to the fact that she is just too smart for her own good. You'd think she could use those brains to be an awesome partner, but, no, she uses them to plot evil ways to get out of work. On our first LD ride she spent the entire time figuring out my posting. Then at around mile 20 as I went up, she went down and to the left ever so slightly so that when I came down she wasn't there and I landed on my feet next to her while she looked at me very smugly. I had witnesses to the fact that she really did this.

I bought her a week before Christmas in 2010. I had started to look for a horse and wanted an Arab mare. I have no clue how I ended up with her. I only ever looked at ads with pics and wasn't happy with anything I was finding. Then one day I looked at a small ad with no pic "10 yo Arab mare, bay, $800". For some unknown reason I emailed and asked for pictures. I got a tiny, indistinguishable cell phone pic in return. Still, I convinced the hubs to drive 2 hours to go see her. She was in a small front yard with a shelter in the mud and snow all alone. She was hairy, dirty, had a belly full of worms and had rubbed all the hair off her butt and tail. She nickered when she saw me and it was over. I asked the 16 yo who owned her to ride. He plopped a monstrous, heavy, ill fitting western saddle on her and rode in her paddock with the ice and mud. I got on for around 2 seconds and paid him and left. She needed a new home. This is her in her shed and when I got her to the first boarding facility.

Her front shoes were grown into her hoof and required an hour to get each off. I doubt she had seen a vet in the 2 years he owned her. I don't know her story before the 16 yo, but I know he used her to gallop down the road and do local barrel races. Our first winter together was.....interesting.

 

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